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Apparently he just withdrew it all of a sudden, which doesn't at all come off as someone throwing him a few bucks to make it go away....

After AJ, Nakamura, and now Anderson/Gallows I can only imagine how baffled Vince must be that fans pop for guys that have never been on WWE TV. Except Gallows of course.

They called him Luke Gallows, and also mentioned they were big stars in New Japan/multiple time IWGP champs.

I would think that a 32 man tourney like this would need some cannon fodder type guys so you don't have top level guys losing in the first round. Lince is like the sixteen seed in the NCAA tourney, they probably don't really deserve to be there but they aren't winning and are just happy to be there.

To me it seems pretty simple. Forget HHH, would Vince ever call someone up to his main roster looking like Chris Hero?

Trish ending up one of the better women performers WWE had makes people forget she originally was brought in just because she was a hot fitness model. She just happened to get good at wrestling as bonus. As far as Elizabeth goes, I thought the story was that she was a "rat" back in the days and that was why Savage was so psycho protective of her (that and him being a legit mental case at times). The Piggie James and Molly granny-panties storylines just came off as the company using angles to bully performers. Like if you didn't fit Vince's ideal of beauty you were just a fat pig to be mocked.

The thing about Dave is he's someone who's sense of humor doesn't translate well to text. What's deadpan on an audio show comes off as being an asshole on twitter.

He spends most of his time responding to randos who act like he's a writer at a cut n' paste site, he mentioned on the WON board he's not a big fan of Twitter but apparently him schooling idiots is good for business so he's sticking with it.

I loved Kevin Kelly "warning the affiliates" that the Fight Without Honor next week will be more violent than the usual ROH match. Little touches like that selling match stips always works with me.

There was always the running vague mention back in the 90s that if you asked Ivory about David McClane, you'd be in for a long discussion. Not sure if that was supposed to be in reference to anything sexual, or just being a shitty promoter.

So Rene Dupree is heading up a class action suit against WWE over royalties from the network. I'd imagine this will either end up being Jerry McDevitt's next snack or perhaps the end of the network as we know it since they don't seem to fare too well in cases involving royalties.

What was reported about Tanahashi? A question was asked why was just Nak signed and not Okada or Tanahashi. Dave said Okada had no interest in leaving NJPW and they felt Tanahashi was too old and beat up.

I just thought it was funny that according to Dave they passed on Tanahashi for being 39 yet to me Nakamura looks so much older facially. I wonder if the inherent homoerotic undertones of wrestling kept anyone from doing a Freddy and/or MJ tribute act before. They're probably the two best showmen in music history, and both seem like such a no-brainer fit for a wrestling gimmick.

Yeah I was totally expecting some variant on his Shao Kahn skull helmet or at least his King of Kings crown, but nope. Still, max level end boss Evil Steph more than made up for it. Also was anyone else getting a Mil Muertes sitting on his throne vibe from Steph's entrance?

Bossman's daughters were indeed great for "civilians" in front of such a large crowd. Both of them look so much like their dad too. Props to mom too, when the three came out at first I couldn't tell which one she was. Also seeing Ray Gordy made me wonder how, in a company where his dad's best friend is one of the top creative staff members did he only end up a low-midcard geek in WWE? I get not wanting to try to ride his father's coattails, but surely there were better options than the Jesse and Festus gimmick.

Shock because it didn't feel like the finish, rather than at the result. No, that was at the result I feel. That crowd LOVES Bayley. Her losing the title was a pretty big deal. Exactly. It was because they cared should have read the rest of the thread and replied later, but I'll reiterate. If they cared so much then why were they all sitting when the finish came? I totally agree with the guy who said that the shock was at least in part b/c that didn't feel like the finish. And IMO it's not because the work didn't make it feel like a finish but because the crowd was inexplicably not treating it like a finishing stretch. No one was expecting Bayley to lose by submission, either by tap or pass out. My impression was they got a little to cute and decided to copy the Meisha-Holly finish and no one picked up on it. I know when the bell rang my reaction was of the "wait, what just happened" variety, I thought for a second maybe the timekeeper messed up.

Well he did, they just didn't call it that yet. Predetermined professional wrestling *is* sports entertainment, despite WWE tiring everyone out on the term.

I don't know what's more jarring to me, hearing normal-voiced Vader talk or non Russian voiced Ivan.

I tend to agree with those who have said it's a good thing for everyone's sake he's going through NXT. If he were to start on the main roster without first learning all of the idiosyncracies of the WWE style, he'd get a label as not being as good as everyone thinks, which he doesn't deserve. He may still get that label, but he's at least getting the opportunity to learn WWE's religion. I actually thought he did a little less than he does in a usual New Japan match (and I mean that as a positive), so he's probably going to be a quick study. What's tough to imagine is him doing the weekly two commercial break matches, or even doing the 3-5 minute specials or going 50-50 with guys like Kevin Owens, and still reaching his potential as a star. He's helped in that he can speak English (although I have no idea how fluent he is), and he's also helped that they want to use him to break into a new market. Then again, they also wanted to use Adam Rose to draw in the UK. He's at least conversational in English and Spanish (he mentioned talking with Sombra at the PC in Spanish), so he should be valuable to them in that aspect.

So in another attempt to steer this back to wrestling, they've been adding some 2003 Raws to the Network while everyone's been distracted by Mania Week.

I wonder what happened to cause Apollo Crews to get cooled off so much. You'd think he's the WWE ideal, looks and ability wise, yet he ended up getting pre-showed.

I know why they do it, but I lol every time they do the "Can Nakamura handle the pressure of a big NXT show", kinda like asking if a major leaguer can handle the pressure of a big AAA game.

I just think it's funny Hayes goes around in public dressed like A Pimp Named Slickback.

I'd be more worried about his son that's a writers assistant on the creative team. Seems that burns people out faster anything else. Plus she should be okay in the sense that it's not like she's going to be expected to be another Mick, they don't have the "divas" throw themselves off cages or go through flaming tables. What could be interesting is that it's not obvious when you watch that most of the women in NXT and on the main roster are super tiny, and Noelle would look like the Big Show next to someone like Sasha Banks.

Show your work. I get surveys emailed to me by WWE all the time, and most of them it's clear what answer they are looking for you to give them. That and the one that always stands out in my mind that was supposed to be about Connor's Cure but all of the questions were about how you feel how good representatives Steph and Hunter were for them. But yes, WWE engages in conformation bias more than anything else when seeking out information.